Six arrested in Thursday morning parolee sweep

LANCASTER – A search of 32 parolee homes in Lancaster Thursday morning netted six arrests, and two children were removed by the Department of Children and Family Services, according to authorities.

The multi-agency operation was conducted to ensure that persons released from state prison under AB 109, also known as Post Supervised Persons (PSPs), were complying with the terms of their early release, according to Lt. Larry Grigg of the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS).

“Part of the job of law enforcement is to ensure that anybody released early from prison or jail, whether it be a parole program or a probation program, is complying with the conditions of that early release program,” said Grigg. “So we often times do compliance checks.”

The department had been planning the operation for several weeks, he said.

“We had to do a work up on each one of the locations to determine where the person lives, if there are any guns, gangs, anything like that,” said Grigg.

Grigg said Thursday’s operation was part of several compliance checks and address verifications law enforcement had conducted across the county since AB 109, or the public safety realignment plan, took effect in October 2011. He estimated about 200 inmates have been released into the area under AB 109 so far.

“Out of the number that have been released in the Lancaster area, we’ve actually contacted somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 about percent,” Grigg said.

Thursday’s early morning operation involved about 90 officers and was run from a mobile command post on Sierra Highway, across the street from the Lancaster Station.

Officers began fanning out to locations across Lancaster around 6 a.m., and by 10:15 a.m., the operation was winding down and all 32 target locations had been checked, according to Grigg.

“We made six arrests but some of those arrests were not the PSP or the AB109 releases, they were other persons in the house that possessed narcotics,” said Grigg.

Grigg said six arrests from 32 locations — a roughly 20 percent arrest rate — is typical for the type of operation conducted.

“It looks like many of them are trying to assimilate back into society which is a portion of the program,” said Grigg. “We’re willing to help anybody who is willing to assimilate back into society, but if they’re not, we’re here to ensure that they either return to prison or that we take steps to make sure that they comply with the program.”

Grigg said the probation department, and in some cases the courts, will determine whether any of the parolees arrested Thursday will have to return to prison. The names of those arrested were not immediately available Thursday.